Boon

+ATK: This is Ophelia’s best boon. Base 37 Attack is a great foundation, and a superboon can push this as high as 41. With her sky-high Attack stat and a tome that reduces Special cooldown, Ophelia can maximize her damage output on initiation, defeating foes in a single hit if her Special is ready.

+SPD: Speed is, as always, a great boon to have on an offensive mage. Though her base 33 Speed leaves a lot to be desired, 36 is much more respectable and can provide a more reasonable starting point for further augmentation from Sacred Seals or skills like Swift Sparrow. Compared to an Attack boon, however, Speed is far less preferable.

Neutral

HP: Ophelia possesses a moderate 38 base HP, which is surprisingly solid for an offensive mage. Given the -4 penalty a superbane would have, this stat is best kept neutral whenever possible.

RES: As a ranged mage, Ophelia’s greatest risk of counter-attack comes from Distant Counter users and mages. As Ophelia can ensure OHKOs against most red and blue heroes, her Resistance stat is more important than her Def. With that said, a Resistance bane is still serviceable, and drops her base defenses to an even 20/20.

Bane

-DEF: Defense is narrowly better than Resistance as a bane, simply because physical attacks will be more infrequent. Red heroes with Distant Counter pose little threat as Ophelia can OHKO them before they have the chance to retaliate, and green heroes will destroy her either way.

Missiletainn’s unique effect can provide great set-up for a build designed to maximize Ophelia’s usage of her Special Skill. For the best performance, Ophelia will want at least one mage ally or an ally with Infantry Pulse to provide an additional -1 to her cooldown count. This build assumes that Ophelia meets the required conditions, resulting in a -3 to her cooldown count on the first turn (-1 from Ophelia, -1 from her mage ally, -1 from Quickened Pulse) in addition to her permanent -1.

The key focus of this build is two-fold: +ATK, Death Blow, and Odd Atk Wave all serve to maximize Ophelia’s attack power and drastically improve her ability to OHKO her enemy. All of these bonuses amount to an incredible 68 Attack when initiating with Death Blow 4, or 66 Attack with Death Blow 3, before merges or any other external effects. This is also excluding the additional damage from her Special skill, which will be fully charged on the first turn by Missiletainn and Quickened Pulse, and after every subsequent battle thanks to Special Spiral.

Special Spiral is the crux of this build, and arguably irreplaceable for its consistency. Though costly to acquire, the -2 cooldown count that it provides ensures that Ophelia can activate her Special skill at the start of every single battle she initiates. This drastically improves her match-ups against enemy heroes that she would normally struggle to break, such as bulky, high-resistance heroes or green heroes she suffers a triangle disadvantage against.

Blazing Light performs the best out of all of Ophelia's Special skills, though somewhat limits Ophelia's options for teammates. Alternatively, Ophelia can charge Luna on the first turn without the need for a mage ally, and Special Spiral will fully charge Luna after every engagement, ensuring that Ophelia can maintain her immense power. Moonbow is a reasonable alternative and frees up her seal slot for Attack +3, but Blazing Light will perform far better, and Luna is also a stronger alternative.

For those without access to Special Spiral, Chill Res from Ophelia's base kit can be a serviceable, though weaker alternative. With Quickened Pulse, Ophelia can charge Luna on the first turn without the need for a mage ally, and take out most enemy heroes with the combination of her Special activation, Death Blow and Chill Res.

Like the previous build, Ophelia wants to heavily invest in her Attack stat. Death Blow and Chill Res are easily obtainable, whereas Odd Atk Wave is an expensive investment but unnecessary if Ophelia has an ally equipped with Atk Tactic or another buffing skill. Quickened Pulse is vital, as Ophelia will not be able to prepare Luna on the first turn without it, though if you opt to run Ophelia alongside another mage, this seal can be substituted for Heavy Blade or Attack +3.

For those who happen to have +SPD instead of +ATK, Ophelia may opt for the timeless Blade-tome over her unique Missiletainn. To take advantage of her solid base 36 Speed with a boon, Ophelia will greatly benefit from additional buffs. Speed is the obvious necessity here, hence the recommendation of skills like Swift Sparrow and Even Spd Wave, and Ophelia must maximize this stat in order to take advantage of the classic combination of skills: Blárblade and Desperation. With a +6 to Attack and Speed, as well as the bonuses from Swift Sparrow and her +SPD boon, Ophelia’s offensive stats transform into an impressive 55 Attack, 49 Speed and +12 damage on initiation, which can be further augmented through additional team support.

The most important skill in this build is Swift Sparrow: the bonus to both Attack and Speed is the perfect addition to a +SPD Ophelia. Blárblade is recommended as Ophelia will desperately want a buff to her Speed, which would also benefit this tome. With that said, Missiletainn is perfectly serviceable, though Ophelia’s damage will come from her Special skills rather than her follow-up attacks.

Introduction

Daughter of one of the most beloved and notorious heroes, Ophelia Dusk makes her debut as a blue mage with the highest Attack stat among all other mages as of the time of her release. 37 Attack, with a +ATK boon pushing her as high as base 41, grants Ophelia immense power. Though her Speed sits at a middling base 33, Ophelia’s high Attack is enough to give her a great Player Phase role.

The divine heroine’s most noteworthy feature is her tome Missiletainn - not to be confused with the demon blade Mystletainn, though both excel in charging Special skills. Missiletainn grants a permanent -1 Special cooldown count, and an additional -1 on the first turn for each mage in the team. This effect can be great, or ridiculous depending on how much you’re willing to invest in Ophelia’s team support. On her own, Missiletainn grants Ophelia a -2 to Special cooldown count on the first turn, and -1 on subsequent turns, allowing her to charge low-cost Special skills with ease. With more mage allies, however, Ophelia can potentially initiate her first fight on the map with an AoE Special or other high-cost skill like Dragon Fang ready to go.

Though Ophelia’s Speed may be a disappointment to some, her unique tome and fantastic Attack stat give Ophelia considerable strength and a fantastic ceiling. If you’re willing to invest in some expensive skills and considerable team support, Ophelia can potentially activate powerful Special skills at the start of every turn. However, her low Speed and frail defenses leave Ophelia very vulnerable to retaliation, so be wary of having her fight any enemy she cannot immediately defeat.

“The chosen heroine arrives! And what is she called, this maiden of darkness? Ophelia Dusk is her name!”

Ophelia, Fire Emblem Fates

Strengths

Fantastic Attack stat

41 Attack with a +ATK boon is the highest possible base Attack for any mage as of the time of Ophelia’s release and grants Ophelia a great chance of defeating enemy heroes in a single blow.

Great Special charge through Missiletainn

Missiletainn’s unique effect allows Ophelia to charge her Specials more quickly, potentially going as far as fully charging a 4-cost Special on the first turn. The permanent -1 Special cooldown count allows Ophelia to single-handedly charge 2-cost Specials on the first turn, though she will be reliant on skills and teammates to maintain this.

Weaknesses

Missiletainn can be restrictive

Missiletainn boasts a unique and powerful effect, but depending on how far you intend to abuse the -1 Special cooldown count per mage, the tome can become quite restricting. Ophelia will have to rely on mage allies or teammates with Infantry Pulse in order to maintain her ability to activate a Special skill on her first attack. Though strong, this tome stifles team and skill options.

Relatively frail

Her defensive stats, while often just good enough to keep Ophelia alive, are also easy enough to surpass with an Attack boon or follow-up attack. Ophelia will drop to most high-Attack heroes, and her middling Speed cannot protect her against follow-up attacks from some of the faster heroes in the game.

Team Options

Ophelia’s team options are considerably more important than most other heroes. If she wields Missiletainn, additional mage allies can be a great boon. The additional Special charge will allow Ophelia to use more powerful Special skills on the first turn. Additionally, Ophelia can benefit from allies with Infantry Pulse, who can grant accelerated Special charge beyond the first turn. Outside of these categories, Ophelia can greatly benefit from a powerful red ally to check her weakness to greens.

Mages: Any tome ally can provide increased Special charge to Ophelia on turn 1 if she is wielding Missiletainn, which can vastly improve her first round of combat. Red mages, such as Celica, Eirika (SM), Sanaki, Lilina, or Summer Tana make for great partners. Note that staff users will not trigger Missiletainn’s effect.

Heroes with Infantry Pulse: Heroes that can grant Ophelia Infantry Pulse to maintain her Special skill after the first turn can vastly improve her combat ability. Many heroes can inherit this skill, but Summer Xander, Marisa, and Dorcas all possess it in their base kit.

Counters

Ophelia’s mediocre Speed and low defensive stats leave her incredibly weak to most attacks. Though her decent HP will often soak a single hit for her, any follow-up attacks are likely to KO, and she’ll struggle to survive any attack from a green hero. Brave weapons will also spell disaster for Ophelia.

High Speed Heroes: Most heroes that can surpass Ophelia’s Speed stat and make a follow-up attack will KO her with ease. This includes heroes that can surpass 38 Speed at least, but this threshold may be higher if Ophelia is invested in Speed. Cavalry heroes in particular make for strong counters, as they can initiate combat against Ophelia more easily.

Green Heroes: Almost any and all green hero with a solid Attack stat will have little trouble defeating Ophelia. Hector, Brave Ephraim, Lewyn, Cherche, Gunnthrá and other similar heroes should have no problem dispatching her.

Brave weapon users: Heroes that can deal two immediate attacks can dispose of Ophelia in an instant. This even includes heroes who she has a triangle advantage over, such as Alm or Brave Celica. Other threats include Reinhardt and Cherche.

The B skill for this build is actually Special Spiral, but for some reason the site doesn't allow her to equip it...

Life and Death is taken over Death Blow as it actually has a higher damage output with Blazing Wind, making it a better choice overall, and this choice was important in Aversa's Infernal difficulty, where Life and Death allowed her to kill a green mage that she would die to if Death Blow was equipped, so it works better against greens. Destroying her defences absolutely does not matter, as she shouldn't be getting hit anyway, and as such, although a Def bane would be preferred, HP and Res are completely acceptable choices. If she receives a form of Spd buff, she is able to actually double things, even though it is probably already dead, for even more power.

Finally Hardy Bearing is taken as her seal so Vantage doesn't screw her over.

I was unlucky enough to get probably the worst IV possible. Atk is Ophelia's most important stat, so taking a hit in it means, that you have to depend on external buffs to reach her usual potential.

I kept her AoE special and put her on a team with 2 other mages. This allows her to start the match with her special ready.
LnD is there to maximize her base attack. We want base atk in this case, because "in-combat" buffs like DB3/4 don't count towards the AoE dmg.

Chill res is a great skill, so keeping it makes sense, unless you already have someone else with chill res on her team.

Savage blow is mostly just a meme option to play along with her AoE potential. It can (and most likely should) be replaced with a buff/debuff skill.

Atk3 as a sacred seal helps a lot, but it's a flexible slot as always. Quickened pulse is good when you want her with only one other mage on her team.

So, if you also were unlucky enough to get a -atk Ophelia, I hope that this build helps you a bit.

She will be able to avoid a double and take a single hit. Except for speedy units. Once shes in the threshold and odd atk wave buffs hel, she eillll reach 70 atk if shes your summoner support and with the 7 boost in speed she will reach 45 speed which is pretty good. Combine that with desperation and she will destroy almost every unit unless you run into Myrrh. Myrrh was the only one to win no matter what I tried.

Replace Chill Res with Special Spiral, an you have a ridiculous turn one till battle end nuke. Completely uncounterable as well due to hardy bearing unless your opponent, by Mila's blessing, somehow survives Ophelia's onslaught.